The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) warned that some commenters may not understand what’s at stake if the FCC agrees to a Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) proposal giving FirstNet, and AT&T, effective control of the 4.9 GHz band. “AT&T/PSSA want the FCC to allow FirstNet to use the 4.9 GHz band so that the band is effectively added to AT&T’s spectrum portfolio,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 07-100. They would also “prohibit new local public-safety licensees in the band and force existing public-safety licensees to surrender spectrum so that AT&T can use the 4.9 GHz band to serve not only public safety but also AT&T’s commercial customers,” CERCI charged. The BWI Business Partnership, meanwhile, withdrew September comments opposing FirstNet use of the band (see 2409120013). “After further investigation into this matter, we realized that we were operating on an incomplete set of facts regarding this regulatory proceeding and a mistaken assumption regarding the proposal,” the group said.

T-Mobile sees limited potential for dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) in carrier networks, Egil Gronstad, senior director-technology development and strategy, said Tuesday. During an Ookla webinar, Gronstad said T-Mobile views its early move to launch a 5G stand-alone (SA) network as critical. It examined DSS and found the efficiency is “pretty bad,” he said. DSS has been “hyped a lot … and we also had high hopes for it.” T-Mobile decided “very early on” that it wanted to make a “quick pivot to SA.” He added, “We drove the chipset and ecosystem very hard from the very beginning to support SA.” Almost all the devices on T-Mobile’s network are SA-capable. That has allowed the carrier to “quickly refarm spectrum from LTE to 5G." Gronstad thought T-Mobile’s major competitors would have done more to move to SA by now. T-Mobile has also worked hard on voice-over new radio (NR), which is voice on a 5G network. “Voice-over NR was a fairly large undertaking -- almost as large as voice-over LTE back in the day.” Vendors tell T-Mobile “just a handful” of operators are moving to voice-over NR globally “and we are five years into the 5G journey,” Gronstad said. “There is a lot more to be done still.” T-Mobile considers high-band spectrum for 5G a “failure.” The carrier didn’t fall “for this millimeter-wave trap,” which was “mostly set up by academia.” Verizon “took the bait and banked on millimeter-wave.” Gronstad also underscored the importance of handset makers enabling the use of new technology in their phones. The pro versions of Apple’s new iPhone 16 support power class 1.5 and uplink multiple-input and multiple-output, “which was music to my ears,” he said. “We have been working so hard to try to get the flagship handset vendors to support this.” Those additions will improve coverage capacity and throughput, he said.

The Georgia Department of Corrections indicated in a Monday filing at the FCC that its system designed to enable correctional facilities to disable contraband wireless devices appears to be working as hoped. During the quarter ending Sept. 30, “there were (0) erroneously disabled devices requiring reversal as the result of a disabling request submitted” by the department, said a filing in docket 13-111.

Spectrum is critical to national security and the development of trusted technology, the Center for Strategic and International Studies says in a new paper. The security of the U.S. “as a market democracy is at stake,” CSIS argues. The U.S. is “currently in danger of falling behind China in mid-band licensed spectrum, which supports wide-area coverage and is essential for bringing mobile services and technologies to every part of the country,” the paper argues: “This shortfall poses a grave threat to the security of U.S. and allied network infrastructure.” CSIS stresses the importance of global harmonization of spectrum and scale for a trusted supply chain. China understands the importance of licensed spectrum for wideband networks and has set aside 2.5 times more mid-band spectrum for licensed use than is available in the U.S., CSIS says. The U.S. “is becoming a mid-band spectrum ‘island,’ operating largely outside the core globally harmonized spectrum bands,” CSIS warns. “If this trajectory continues, the U.S. technology ecosystem will be confined to a U.S.-only spectrum ‘dialect’ that lacks global influence and scale.” CSIS highlights the importance of the 7/8 GHz band as “a key opportunity” for the U.S. “to champion future harmonized capacity that can bolster its domestic wireless capabilities and support economies of scale for its trusted vendors.” That band has been a primary target of wireless carriers in the U.S. CSIS said it plans a second part to the paper, which will cover sharing in the lower 3 GHz band, the other top target of carriers. CTIA said it and its members support CSIS's conclusions.

At the request of T-Mobile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday delayed the dates for filing briefs in the carrier’s appeal of the FCC's 3-2 April decision (see 2404290044) fining the carrier for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations (see 2407090019). T-Mobile’s initial brief was due Monday (docket 24-1224). Under a revised schedule, the initial brief is now due Nov. 25, respondent’s brief Dec. 26 and petitioner’s reply brief Jan. 16.

The American Library Association said the FCC is probably premature in seeking comments in a Further NPRM on rules that would allow schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services. Comments on the FNPRM, which was approved 3-2 as part of the hot spot item in July (see 2407180024), were due Friday in docket 21-31. Replies are due Nov. 4. “We question whether releasing the Further Notice at the same time as the hotspot Order is premature,” ALA said. A better plan would “monitor the program in its first year to collect usage and cost data,” ALA said: “This information can then be used to better craft changes to the program in future years.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau on Friday granted five licenses in the 900 MHz broadband segment to PDV Spectrum. All the licenses are in Texas. The FCC approved an order in 2020 reallocating a 6 MHz swath in the band for broadband, while maintaining 4 MHz for narrowband operations (see 2005130057).

Before the launch of early 5G networks, the consensus was that business-to-business (B2B) communications would be a “big opportunity,” Pablo Iacopino, GSMA Intelligence head-research and commercial content, said during a Mobile World Live webcast on Friday. For consumers, 5G adoption has been “very, very fast” compared to the roll-out of 3G and 4G, he said. When carriers think about providing business customers with 5G, they consider connectivity a first step only, he said. “Really, the incremental value comes from services beyond connectivity,” including cloud and edge services and serving IoT networks, he said. Based on a GSMA survey, businesses say they are willing to spend about 9% of their revenue on average globally on digital transformation, he said. That’s “a big number, and it means there are opportunities for many players to catch a piece of this 9%,” he said: “Enterprises are willing to spend on 5G in order to drive digital transformation.” Different businesses have varying needs and providers must “customize” what they offer. After a slow start, there’s growing momentum behind 5G standalone, “which is the real 5G.” In most places, said David Markland, chief product officer at Inseego, 5G began on 4G core networks, “reusing 4G spectrum with a little bit of efficiency gain, and then it built from there, having more and more spectrum.” Inseego provides wireless gear. A lot of people had a 5G icon on their phones years ago but weren’t seeing changes over 4G, and “personal experience, some days it was worse,” Markland said. That has changed as major carriers deploy “a lot more spectrum” on their networks. “We have 10 times more bandwidth now than … back in the 4G era.”

SpaceX representatives met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Anna Gomez as they made the rounds at the FCC about company concerns over interference from high-power terrestrial operations in the lower and upper 12 GHz band (see 2409260036). “SpaceX’s studies of interference in the upper and lower 12 GHz bands demonstrate that a high-power terrestrial service -- either mobile or fixed -- would devastate the next generation satellite service of Americans who rely on the 10.7-12.7 GHz band for high speed, low latency broadband connectivity,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 22-352. EchoStar disputes those arguments (see 2409050040).

UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel met with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and agency staff to make the case for T-Mobile’s proposed buy of “substantially all” of his company’s wireless operations, including some spectrum (see 2405280047), a deal announced in May. Therivel and others company officials also met with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, aides to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and top officials in the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics, said a filing posted Friday in docket 24-286. By total handset connections nationwide, UScellular is “the seventh-largest wireless provider and accounts for approximately one percent of connections,” the filing said. Competitive pressures are ramping up in its markets, and it’s losing subscribers “despite deploying a variety of strategies to attempt to arrest that decline,” the carrier said: “Subscriber losses accelerated in 2022, a year that UScellular invested heavily on promotions. UScellular anticipates that it will continue to lose subscribers going forward.” It assumed “significant debt to purchase the mid-band spectrum needed to compete in 5G,” it said. “While UScellular has been pulling back on its network investments, its competitors have been spending more to expand their networks and enhance their network quality and customer experience in UScellular’s footprint.”